Belief in God is a Good Bet

Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas

We continue to celebrate the Easter miracle for six weeks, despite the coronavirus mantras, e. g, sanitize hands often, maintain social distance and stay home. Our Easter mantra is Jesus Christ lives, and because he lives, we live!

Have you ever witnessed an Easter miracle? A depressed person resurrected to hope; someone with an alcoholic addiction resurrected to sobriety; a troubled marriage resurrected to renewed love; an estrangement bridged; a terrible wrong forgiven.

We can help create little Easter miracles like that. Think about how, and then do it.

Now the word of God carries us back to the beginnings of Christianity, to a community faithful to Jesus Christ – the way, the truth and the life, a community that worshiped together and shared what they had. These early Christians should inspire us to do the same.

The letter attributed to Peter speaks about our new birth in the life-giving waters of baptism: God gifted us with an imperishable heavenly inheritance. Our faith empowers us to overcome hardships and attain our “goal”: salvation, life eternal with the triune God.

In the Gospel according to John, we have a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus in a house where the apostles hide behind locked doors. Jesus suddenly appears here not merely a spirit or ghost; nor was he simply resuscitated. Jesus was the same person that the apostles knew before but his earthly body was transformed. It was, as Pope Benedict XVI phrased, an “evolutionary leap” into a new of spiritual embodiment.

The risen Jesus  then bestows upon the disciples the energizing Spirit, the abiding peace, and the overwhelming mercy of God. But skeptical Thomas wasn’t there. We know little about him, yet “doubting Thomas” is easily identifiable with many people today, because to be human is to question, to ask for concrete evidence.

A week later Jesus appears again, Thomas sees the light and makes that awesome declaration of faith: “My Lord and my God.”

We are born to be in relationship with God. Otherwise, we will experience an emptiness, an unrest, a feeling something is missing. St. Augustine captured this spiritual hunger eloquently: “Our hearts are restless until they can find rest in you, O God.”

We all need a loving, ongoing relationship. But no human relationship will satisfy us completely, because God created us to live in relationship with Him. Yes, God made every human being in His image. Somehow we broke that relationship and clouded that image with sin. Good and bad, generosity and selfishness, light and dark, all live within us.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus re-established our relationship with God through his death/resurrection. Where there was death, we find life. There was an empty tomb, we find hope.

We all cry out for reconciliation and peace, healing and mercy, which we celebrate today— Divine Mercy Sunday. We yearn for truth and peace and justice, and only in Jesus can we truly find it.

Jesus has freed us from death and nothingness so that we can be in relationship with God forever. He founded a church, a community of disciples, to continue God’s work. In this community God transforms us through the sacraments into new creatures, called to live as His sons and daughters.

One final word regarding Thomas the questioner. Various indicators point to God. The order in the universe presupposes an “orderer” like a watch presupposes a watchmaker, hope presupposes a future; and so forth. There are also signs that point to no God—for example, genocide or the holocaust or even pandemic disease. But faith in God is a calculated risk.

Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, inventor, and philosopher, “wagered” like this:
One does not know whether God exists.
Not believing in God is bad for one’s eternal soul if God does exist.
Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist.
Therefore, it is in one’s interest to believe in God. Think about it. In other words, faith in God is a good bet.

At a funeral mass, we hear the words, “For those who believe, life is not taken away, life is merely changed.” Let us pray that our faith in God will empower us to exclaim every day, “My Lord and my God.”

The Paradox of Palm Sunday: Triumph and Tragedy

Jesus Entering Jerusalem

I wish we could gather in person for Holy Week. Yet we can gather spiritually for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter reflections. There’s a link at the St. Raphael Church website. Many of us are physically distant. But the lights will go on again.

On Ash Wednesday, we were invited to treat ourselves to the age-old exercises of prayer, fasting (doing without negative attitudes and behaviors), and almsgiving (sharing what we have). I hope these 40 days of Lenten exercises have reinvigorated us.

Palm Sunday, we begin Holy Week, the chief week of the Christian liturgical year. We focus upon the Paschal Mystery, the journey of Jesus from this earthly life through the mystery of death into a heavenly life.

“Paschal” refers to the Passover, the passing of the angel of death over the homes of the Hebrews in ancient Egypt. In a larger sense, Passover refers to the Exodus or liberation from their oppressors.

On Palm Sunday, we reflect upon a paradox: the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and the Gospel proclamation of his passion and death. In the tragedy of Good Friday, there is the triumph of Easter—Jesus alive among us.

The word of God from Isaiah, chapter 50, is a poem about a “servant” who suffers for us (the early Christian community saw Jesus in this servant).

Paul’s letter to the Christian community at Philippi in Greece quotes an early Christian hymn about God who became one of us, obedient even to death on the cross.

The Gospel according to Matthew chapters 26-27 proclaims Jesus’s passion and death.

Next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are known as the triduum (from a Latin word meaning three days).

Thursday, we will commemorate the Lord’s Supper: there is the washing of feet (a symbol of service) and then the eating of a meal in which Jesus gives himself to us in the signs of bread and wine (a symbol of our oneness with God and fellow human beings).

Good Friday, we meditate upon the passion and death of Jesus: the Garden of Gethsemane; the trial; the Crucifixion; the burial; the veneration of the cross; and a simple Communion.

At the Easter vigil, we reflect upon the passage of Jesus into a transformative, transfigured heavenly life. The resurrection is a pledge of our own liberation. Easter proclaims that Jesus is risen, gloriously alive among us. This is indeed the paramount week of our liturgical year, and I urge all to participate spiritually.

I conclude with a story about a ship that ran aground off the coast of England in 1875 in fierce gale winds. Among the 157 passengers who perished were five nuns traveling to Missouri for a new teaching ministry. They were fleeing Bismarck’s anti-Catholic legislation.

Gerard Manley Hopkins dedicated his poem The Wreck of the Deutschland to these nuns. He saw in their deaths a parallel to the sufferings of Jesus for the sake of many.

The poem reads: As the water rose, the nuns clasped hands and were heard saying, “O Christus, O Christus, komm schnell” meaning “O Christ, O Christ, come quickly!”

Hopkins concludes with this line: “Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us.” Here, the word “easter” is a nautical term meaning steering a craft toward the east, into the light. That light is Jesus. “Let Christ easter in us” so that we may reflect his life.

I pray that this Holy Week will inspire us to seek ever more enthusiastically the God who became flesh in Jesus, and who opened up to all humankind a God who is alive among us by the power of the Spirit.

In Death There's Life

Raphael's Resurrection of Jesus

At the 11th hour on the 11th day in the 11th month in 1918, WWI ended. Armistice Day then became Veterans Day now and on Monday, November 11 we honor our veterans, over 18 million men and women in our military.  Thank you, veterans, for your service to our country.

Here's a bit of simple wisdom I like: may your troubles be less, may your blessings be more, and may happiness come through your door. That's all in the Bible, and it’s my prayer for each of you, especially our veterans whom we honor this Veterans Day.

Sunday’s word of God in the book of Maccabees describes the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons. They stood up for their beliefs and died for them. The author may be asking us, do we speak up for what's right?

The Letter to the Christian community at Thessaloniki urges the community to persevere in their discipleship with Jesus. God will strengthen them, the author writes, so they can fix their hearts on God. That’s a good message for us as well.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus and the Sadducees talk about mortality and immortality. The Sadducees, who don’t believe in life after death, use an absurd example of seven brothers marrying the same sister-in-law and then dying. ”Who’s her husband in the next life?” they ask.

But Jesus distinguishes between “this age” and “the next age.” And even Moses had alluded to life after death.

From a Christian perspective, hidden in every Good Friday is the glory of Easter, when God transformed Jesus into a new awesome spiritualized body. The disciples knew him in the breaking of the bread. The resurrection was real, even though they couldn’t name his new mode of spiritual embodiment. And that new life one day will be ours.

Meantime, we have our Good Fridays. Sometimes problems seem to overwhelm us. In trying times, we may wonder, where is God? This eternal question is highlighted in the book of Job, in the Confessions of Saint Augustine, in the novels of Dostoevsky, and in recent best sellers.

As we reflect upon the human situation, we realize that our planet is wounded, so to speak. At times, suffering results from immoral behavior, from misuse of freedom, from tyranny. At other times, suffering results from natural disasters, from an incomplete universe, a universe in progress.
But ultimately, suffering is a mystery. How respond?

First, remember that God is always near us, closer to us than we are to ourselves. God forever seeks to bring us to the fullness of life.

Second, avoid negative judgments about ourselves. To think, I really deserve it, is a form of self-hatred. God loves us unconditionally.

Finally, remember that the mystery of inescapable suffering has healing and redemptive power. Jesus, through the mystery of his death and resurrection, healed us, reconnected us to God in friendship. Yes, our inescapable aches and pains, born with love, can bring forth new depths of life in ourselves and in others.

As we remember our deceased loved ones in November, we may ask, how do we come to terms with our own dying? Some counselors help people cope by encouraging them to begin drafting a letter to loved ones. This may highlight the most important gifts we can leave them: love, faith in God, hope in life eternal, compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude. This is not the end, but a beginning.

Where There's Darkness, Bring Light

Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas

Jesus Christ lives, and because he lives, we live.

We continue to celebrate the Easter miracle.

And we can help create little miracles for others. A depressed person resurrected to hope; an alcoholic resurrected to sobriety; a troubled marriage resurrected to renewed love; an angry man resurrected to forgiveness; an estrangement bridged; an alienated person brought back to faith and kindness. Make miracle an action verb.

In the book of Acts, the disciples work signs and wonders, and a vibrant faith community is emerging and growing. That should inspire us to worship together and share, especially our time and talents in service.

The book of Revelation describes a Christian’s visionary experience of the God-man Jesus, risen and alive. The author encourages readers to persevere in their faith despite hardships, because good ultimately will triumph.

In the Gospel according to John, we have a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus in a Jerusalem house where the disciples hide behind locked doors. Jesus bestows upon the disciples the energizing Spirit, the abiding inner peace, and the overwhelming mercy of God. But the skeptical Thomas wasn’t there. Lo and behold, a week later Jesus appears again. Thomas then makes that awesome declaration of faith “My Lord and my God.”

Thomas the doubter is easily identifiable with many people. They're doubters, questioners; they demand to see compelling evidence that there's a God.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Every human being is made in the image of God. But we are fallen or flawed human beings.  And that is why we cry out for healing and mercy.

We seek God's mercy and forgiveness, and the forgiveness of one another. Jesus, through the mystery of his dying and rising, freed us from death and nothingness so we can live with God forever. God created us for a purpose; gifted us with life eternal; and reconciled us to Himself.

There are all kinds of indicators pointing to God: the order in the universe presupposes an orderer (e. g., a watch presupposes a watchmaker); hope presupposes a future; moral outrage presupposes a judge; and so forth.

Of course, there are also indicators that there’s no God—for example, evil or senseless violence. But faith in God is a calculated risk. The 17th French mathematician, inventor, and philosopher Blaise Pascal captured this risk in his famous wager or bet.  The bet goes like this:
One doesn't have certainty that God exists.
Not believing in God is bad for one’s eternal soul if God indeed does exist.
Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist.
Therefore, it is in my interest to believe in God. Think about that bet.

At a funeral mass, we hear the words, “For those who believe, life is not taken away, life is merely changed.” Let us pray that the gift of faith will empower us, like Thomas, to proclaim every day, “My Lord and my God.”

Jesus Christ Lives and We Live

Rubens' Resurrection of Jesus

Happy Easter! Felices Pascuas! Joyeuses Paques! Buona Pasqua! Frohe Ostern!

We call Easter the Paschal mystery: paschal relates to the “paschal lamb” of Passover, which Jewish communities celebrate during our Easter celebration this year.

Easter is about the daybreak, starting over. Jesus’s resurrection is a new day. This is a time to be joyful, happy, enthusiastic about life. We have so much to be grateful for, especially the gift of faith in Jesus Christ who is our way, our truth and our life.

Every morning, we awaken to begin again. Perhaps the night before, we carried burdens: things undone, bad things said, good things unsaid. In the morning all is possibility, opportunity. Who among us is content with things as they are? Who does not want to be more loving, more generous, more tenderhearted, more thoughtful, more helpful? This Easter, God wakes us up again, to rediscover the extraordinary graces transforming our lives TODAY.

In the Gospel according to John, chapter 20, we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty. Shortly thereafter, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, to the disciples in the upper room, and on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is not among the dead. Jesus is risen. He is alive. He has passed through this earthly life – as we do --- and then through the mystery of death into a new, transfigured reality. This heavenly reality is ours as well. That is the Easter message!

Jesus said, I live, and because I live, we also live.

How? We are born in the flesh and reborn in the Spirit. Water is poured upon us in the rite of baptism, and in these waters the Spirit of God is poured upon us, and the triune God lives within us, and we live within the triune God.

As we grow into adolescence, the bishop anoints our forehead with oil in the sign of the cross—and God pours out more fully the gifts of the Spirit so that we might practice more faithfully all of the fruits of the Spirit: patience, generosity, faithfulness and love.

And at the Eucharist, where the living Christ sacramentally presences himself to us in the signs of bread and wine, and becomes one with us in Communion,; the living Christ feeds us with his life so we can continue our journey. If we should stumble on our journey, the living Christ lifts us up in the rite of penance where we celebrate God’s mercy.

Yes, through the sacraments, we experience the living Christ and we go forth to love and serve one another. The exchange of wedding promises, the anointing of the sick, all the sacraments are indeed signs of God’s care.

Eternal life in relationship with God and one another—that is our ultimate purpose. Easter is about getting our priorities straight, about asking, “How can we become more godlike, more loving, more generous, more thoughtful, more helpful?”

Easter is indeed about a new day, a fresh start.  Why. Because Jesus Christ lives. And because He lives, we live.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son

This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word meaning “rejoice.” Why rejoice? Because we are close to our salvation, the Easter mystery.

In modern times, Easter is often boiled down to eggs and the Easter bunny. Many people ask, what’s the connection?

Originally, eggs laid during Holy Week were saved and decorated and then given to children as Easter gifts. Chocolate eggs appeared in the 19th century. And the Easter bunny? Rabbits usually give birth to a big litter, so they became a symbol of new life. Legend had it that the Easter bunny lays and hides eggs. Thus, the Easter egg hunt. So much for folklore.

What does the word of God say to us today? In the Gospel, the parable of the prodigal son has many levels of meaning, inviting us to see ourselves in the characters.

The younger son asked his father for his inheritance, squandered it—and then he “comes to his senses.” An amazing phrase! He realizes his true identity as a beloved son. His father unconditionally forgives and loves him and gives him a party.

The older son is “angry,” critical, finding his father’s generosity incomprehensible. Was the older son really listening to his father, and following his example? His father affirmed that “everything I have is yours.”

This parable may move us to ponder forgiving someone. If we can’t forgive on our own, pray for the grace to participate in the forgiveness of Jesus, who pardons those who come to him and try to start their lives afresh.

And who is this Jesus who loves and forgives us unconditionally?  Did you ever wonder what Jesus really looked like? Great painters give us different portraits. The Gospel writers Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John also give us different portraits, and various ways to bring forth Jesus. They faced a unique challenge. How portray someone completely human and yet completely divine? Moreover, they wrote to different audiences. Which Gospel is most authentic and best reflects the historical Jesus? They all do.

Mark was the earliest, shortly after scores of Christians perished during the persecution of Emperor Nero. Mark thought he ought to write who Jesus was, what he taught, and what he did. The Jesus in Mark is very human: the Messiah who suffers so that we can live forever. What happened to Jesus, Mark says, can happen to us too. Luke’s and Matthew’s portraits are similar.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is noble, majestic, and divine. Remember how this Gospel opens: in the beginning was the Word. Yes, Jesus is completely human and completely divine. Jesus in John is the revealer of the mystery of God, the face of God among us.

Jesus, the God-man, is more than any one person can adequately describe. And so, each of us might ask: how do I reflect Jesus in my daily attitudes and behaviors? Rediscover a portrait of Jesus by prayerfully reading and listening to the Gospel. Let the portrait fire you up to become an ever-more-faithful disciple.

Lent: Getting Our Priorities Straight

Rembrandt's Sketch of Jesus in Wilderness

We have begun our Lenten journey. It is a time to slow down and remember our purpose in life and get our priorities straight.

This weekend, many of us heard the Grand Prix cars racing through downtown St. Petersburg. In our high-speed world it’s a challenge to slow down, remember our purpose and get our priorities straight.

Last Wednesday we had our foreheads smudged with ashes and may have heard a prayer,  “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.” Dust symbolizes nothingness. It’s commonplace. Yet God became dust in Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus charged dust with the grandeur of God through his death/resurrection.

Lent tells us that it is time to get our priorities straight. It's a time for prayer; a time for doing without unnecessary things so the needy can have what’s necessary;and a time to reach out with a helping hand.

The word of God carries us back to the early history of ancient Israel. Deuteronomy focuses on identity, reminding the Hebrews of their roots: they were once at-risk nomads; exploited as cheap labor in Egypt; brought to a place of abundance; and now grateful to the God who saved them.

And our Christian identity? In baptism, we were branded and transformed into a “new creatures,” sons and daughters of God our Father, called to live a god-like life. That’s our identity.

Paul, in his letter, proclaimed fundamental truths: Jesus is our Lord to whom we owe our allegiance. Through faith, we have eternal life.

In the Gospel according to Luke, the devil appears as a seductive voice in the wilderness, tempting Jesus with earthly power and prestige. In some form, these are temptations that many human beings face. God’s word may be asking us how true we are to our identity as baptized Christians.

Yes, Lent is time to consider again our priorities. Leo Tolstoy can be a good resource. Many of us know of Anna Karenina and War and Peace. But Tolstoy also wrote shorter, profoundly religious novels. A Confession, for example, expresses his search for meaning and purpose.

Perhaps Tolstoy’s masterpiece was the 75-page novel The Death of Ivan Ilyich. A man on his deathbed realizes he wasted his life. In exchange for luxury and status, he sacrificed his authenticity and integrity. The result is a spiritual barrenness. Now he faces a mortality he never acknowledged, and he's terrified.

Avoiding thoughts about death, in favor of superficialities, is not reserved to nineteenth-century Russians. It's the story of everyone.

20th American writer Frederick Buechner gives us an examination:

 If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less? Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember? If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?

It can be depressing business, Buechner notes, “but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.”

As we enter the Lenten season, let us ask God for the grace to pursue single-mindedly the priority in life: eternal life in relationship with God and one another.

Hidden in Good Friday was Easter Joy

Rubens, the Resurrection of Christ

In the Gospel according to Mark, two disciples, James and John, argue over the privilege of status in “the age to come” without realizing the cost of discipleship here and now. Jesus says: “Can you drink the cup that I drink?” That is, the cup of suffering. Jesus concludes: to be a disciple is to serve others. Serving, not lording, is what leadership is all about in our faith community. Good leadership, many would argue, is a potent combination of good strategy and moral character, that is, working to achieve goals for the greater common good and at the same time preserving one's integrity.

Jesus, completely divine and yet completely human like ourselves, through his horrific death and glorious resurrection, re-established our relationship with God. Our relationship with God and one another is at the heart of Christianity.

Hidden in every Good Friday can be Easter joy. Think about it.

Someone loses a job or home, or is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, or sees a relationship unravel, or realizes a loved one has an addiction. The family tries, as best it can, to deal with this “cross” and thereby brings hope, healing, forgiveness and resurrection to their life.

Or a student can’t understand a calculus problem. The teacher, who wants to go home after a long week, patiently walks the student through the problem. After a lot of work and patience, the “lights come on.”

The point is we sometimes find ourselves stuck in a situation – our problems may batter and even overwhelm us. Yet faith challenges us to remember that good ultimately will conquer evil, love transforms hate, light shatters darkness. The ministry of Jesus did not end in the tragedy of the cross but in the triumph of the Resurrection.

In his book “The Night,” a memoir of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Elie Wiesel describes how the SS marched all the inmates outside and there hung a youngster – as a warning not to try an escape. As the youngster hung dying, Elie Wiesel, a youngster himself, heard a voice say: Where is God now?

This is an eternal question. The entire planet yearns for God’s healing grace. There is of course no satisfactory answer to the mystery of suffering and evil. Suffering does sometimes result from immoral behavior, from the misuse of freedom, and from a universe in progress, to paraphrase St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.

But ultimately, how respond to suffering? First, remember that God is always near us, forever bringing us to fuller life. Chisel in our memories the words of Isaiah, “Can a mother forget her infant…and, even if she does, I will never forget you.”

Second, remember that the mystery of suffering can have healing and redemptive power. Why do I say that? Because Jesus, through the mystery of his own passion in Gethsemane, death on Calvary, and resurrection from the tomb, re-established the relationship we had at the beginning with God.

Yes, our inescapable aches and pains, borne with love, can be redemptive, can bring forth new life in ourselves and in others. The sufferings of Jesus did precisely that.

We can bring Easter hope to someone's "Good Friday" by reaching out with a helping hand, a listening ear, or an encouraging word.